The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the Madhya Pradesh High Court order directing political parties to switch to virtual campaigning for by-elections.
Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi appeared for Election Commission of India (ECI) and said, “We had issued guidelines. Please appreciate the requirements of balancing election with campaigning.” The top court observed, “It’s the Election Commission (EC) which needs to go into these issues. You take initiative and set right the situation. If there is any illegality going on it’s for you to ask the authority to take action. We will stay the High Court Judgement and leave it to ECI to take action on all allegations and grievances.”
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi appeared for BJP leader Pradyumn Tomar and said, “ECI should consider we have lost six days of campaigning. It should consider whether we should get more time to campaign. Three hours a day must be added for the campaign.”
“We will not get into this. We don’t know whether the situation in that area is conducive for the campaign. You can ask the ECI to consider your request,” said the court.
Dwivedi said, “There must be no representations. I will convey the request made during the hearing to the ECI.” Rohatgi replied that they should keep in mind that six days of campaigning are gone.
To which the Supreme Court said, “Who is responsible for that? If the political parties had acted according to the mandate of the Covid-19 protocols this situation would not have happened. You forced the High Court to pass such orders and are now coming here with this petition.” While saying this, the Supreme Court refused the plea by Pradyumn Tomar to extend the campaigning time.
The court was hearing petitions filed by the ECI and the BJP leader challenging the October 20 order of Madhya Pradesh High Court which directed that political parties shall conduct election campaigns by virtual mode, without any physical gatherings. Tomar sought a stay on the order, contending that it violates his right to conduct election campaigns through physical gatherings as permitted by the ECI.
The High Court has no jurisdiction to substitute the Covid-19 guidelines issued by the Central Government and the State Government, issued under Section 10 of the National Disaster Management Act, 2005, said the plea. The superintendence, direction and control over the conduct of elections is exclusively within the domain of the EC as held in Mohinder Singh Gill vs. The Chief Election Commissioner, (1978) 1 SCC 405 and could not have been substituted by the High Court, added the plea.
The High Court cannot modify and substitute the order passed by the EC, Central Government and the State Government even without there being any challenge to those orders in this writ petition, said the plea. The court exceeded its jurisdiction while passing the interim order and restraining physical gathering for campaigns ahead of bye-polls, added the plea. The High Court exceeded its jurisdiction in directing the election candidate to deposit the money for double the number of masks and sanitisers than the expected number of people in the gathering, said the plea.
The High Court failed to consider where the Covid-19 protocol was being violated, the State Government was taking necessary action and registering FIRs and any direction beyond the same was completely unnecessary and without jurisdiction, added the plea.
On 20 October Madhya Pradesh High Court had restrained political parties from holding physical gatherings unless they got a certification from District Magistrates and the EC that virtual election campaign was not possible.
The High Court had passed orders in a PIL highlighting that various political parties were organising physical campaigning, which was increasing Covid-19 spread. It was contended in the plea that state authorities were not taking any action against such political parties and their leaders. The court had further directed that the permission of the District Magistrate for physical election campaign shall be effective only if the ECI approves the same in writing.